Name: Ria Moran
Nationality: British
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current Release: Ria Moran's album Cubico is out via DeepMatter.
Recommendation for London, UK: I’d say go for a walk around Hackney Marshes, then take a little walk up to the canal to Hackney Wick and grab a cocktail at No. 9 overlooking the canal. It’s cuteeeee.
Things I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: I’m really passionate about bass guitar after picking it up a few years ago. 50% of my good friends are professional bassists so I have a lot of talented people keeping me on track! :) Oh and F1 ...!

If you enjoyed this Ria Moran interview and would like to know more about her music, current live dates and releases, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and bandcamp.

Ria Moran has been working with Nubiyan Twist for some time. For a deeper dive, read our Nubiyan Twist interview.



When did you first consciously start getting interested in singing? What was your first performance as a singer on stage or in the studio and what was the experience like?

Apparently, I was singing and performing in the pram according to my mum. I always found myself being drawn to the stage, whether it was dance, drama or music.

Growing up, I was in love with dancing but had to stop due to a foot injury which led me to taking music more seriously and I began learning piano. In my own time I explored my voice, arranging popular songs and my school started putting me up for performances which sowed the seed of it being an option for me.

That’s when I started experiencing the connection side of music, not just a solo venture and it became a really expressive space.



If you're also playing other instruments, how does the expressive potential of these compare to your own voice?

I learned classical piano growing up, which taught me how to play with a lot of emotion and expression but definitely found there to be limitations around improvising. So I use piano mainly as a writing tool and a way for me to relax.

Vocally, it’s quite different as improvising is really fun. Sometimes on stage, you can have these experiences of just fully being wrapped up in the moment, and able to move your voice wherever you want it - it’s the best feeling.  

I wrote the initial piano part for “Anything You Desire” but knew it had a lot more room to explore. So I invited my incredible friend Lyle Barton to play and hearing what he ended up playing blew my mind.



Hearing how other musicians interpret the part is the most exciting part and always the time the whole song comes to life.  

What were some of the main challenges in your development as a singer/vocalist? Which practices, exercises, or teachers were most helpful in reaching your goals – were there also “harmful” ones?

Oh I have so much to say here …

I was self taught so University was my first experience of going to a vocal lesson. Sadly the teacher is pretty well known for being quite unkind. So on one hand I learnt a lot about primal sound and technique, but on the other hand I think it developed an anxiety around singing because of his personal criticism.  

I had a beautiful experience with Jesse Bannister studying Indian Improvisation in University. I studied with Anol Chatterjee, and started to use visualisation in my practise when improvising.

A big challenge has always been volume, I imagine it’s because I’ve always sang on my own with piano, never loud and proud in a space with people so I’m starting to unpack that with Lucinda. (@voiceunlocked) We’ve had two amazing breathing coordination lessons, re-mapping the breath and we’re going to continue to work on integration in our next sessions.

So currently my exercises have all been breath related, she’s tailoring my warm up to meet my needs. Super excited to see what we can do together, and so so so happy to feel positive about the lessons.

What are the things you hear in a voice when listening to a vocalist? What moves you in the voices of other singers?

Gosh I love these questions so much.

I want to feel something. I’m moved by vocalists who really sing from their heart, once someone connects with the lyrics you can just feel it. It’s something you can’t put your finger on, just a feeling, whether it shows up in goosebumps or tears - it’s so cool how voices can do that.



How would you describe the physical sensation of singing? [Where do you feel the voice, do you have a visual sensation/representation, is there a sense of release or tension etc …]

Visualisation has always been a big part of my process, my hands start moving without being conscious of it - mapping out the shapes of the vocal. It helps to tune in to the emotion of the lyric.

Physical sensation wise, it really depends on the day for me. A year ago, singing felt so uncomfortable, I felt like I’d lost my connection to my voice. I’m understanding now the link between my anxiety, breath and how it impacts the connection to singing.

I’m so thankful to Lois (psychotherapist) and Lucinda (vocal coach) for being such supportive people in my vocal journey as it’s beginning to feel like a comfy space again.

We have a speaking voice and a singing voice. Do these feel like they are natural extensions of each other, ends on a spectrum or different in kind?

I never realised how connected these were until recently! When I’m socially anxious, my speaking voice gets very tight and high and feels restricted so I’ve really been working on grounding myself and speaking from a natural place.

The more relaxed my body and mind is, the more connected and grounded I feel when I’m singing, so my breathing exercises have become a daily practice now.

How do you see the relationship between harmony, rhythm and melody? Do you feel that honing your sense of rhythm and groove has an effect on your singing skills?

When I started learning bass I realised how floaty (aka out of time) I can be haha.

“Slow Breathing” started out as a bass lesson with Luke Wynter when we were exploring how to write a bass line under a progression.



After he left I just kept coming back to it, and started demo’ing guitar ideas on bass. It came together so quickly and was super inspired by D’Angelo and the way his vocal locked in but also had moments of freedom.

What are the potentials and limits of your voice? How much of your vocal performance can and do you want to control?

I’d love to consider myself an emotive vocalist, everything comes from the heart and from a sincere place. I do have a lot of control over my voice and love leaning into the details and expression.

Limitations wise, my speaking and singing voice have always been quite quiet which can be an issue in some venues. One of my goals this year with my vocal coach is to unlock the potential of volume in my voice, as I feel that will give me a lot of freedom on stage - so we’ll see!

I’d love to know more about the vocal performances for Cubico, and the qualities of your voice that you wanted to bring to the fore.

Of course, the vocals are quite laid back on the album. My goal lyrically was to create authentic songs, intentional lyrics so the vocals often have a speech quality to them.

Inspired by D’Angelo, I’ve always been in love with a vocal stack so you’ll hear a lot of cool harmonies throughout the album. My goal for every song was to let the lyric and lead line shine.



I love "All I ever Wanted" as it’s a cute blend between a more expressive vocal on the chorus and a speech quality spoken word approach in the verse.  



When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

Yeah, this is definitely a thing, finding a flow that feels good to sing. This develops quite naturally when you’re writing your own material.

It’s definitely part of the challenge when you sing someone else's song, their preference of vowel shape, key, melody shapes - it can be a big challenge.

I had this when I was singing "Lately" for Gotts Street Park, I had to manipulate my delivery a little, going towards a twangier setting to be able to deliver it in an effective way.

Strain is a particularly serious issue for many vocalists. How do you take care of your voice? Are the recipes or techniques to get a damaged voice back in shape?

I love my Dr Nelson's steamer when I’m in a time of need! When I’m touring, I steam before I go to bed and in the morning. Manuka honey / lemon / ginger tea is always on hand as well and making sure I’m drinking enough water to begin with. My friend Sim Virdi collaborated with quartercuptea to make a beautiful vocal blend tea and it’s so soothing.

From a lifestyle perspective I have to be really careful with not overusing my speaking voice, so I tend not to be in places where I have to shout to be heard as I find that is what fatigues my voice the most. And no alcohol on tours as well. I do my best to sound the best I can on each show.

Oh and never steam directly before a performance (I did this so much when touring with Nubiyan Twist) and my good friend Sim Virdi said ‘it’s like taking a sauna directly before a run’ and informed me of the potential risks related to doing this.

How has technology, such as autotune or effect processing, impacted singing? Has it been a concrete influence on your own approach?

I wouldn’t say autotune has influenced my approach personally, I’m really drawn to an organic sound on the whole. I used to love my voice floating around in reverb but for this album we kept leaning towards the dryer side.

Saying that, we had a lot of fun on "Automatic" - Tal Janes (producer) is a wicked guitarist and wanted to hear how my voice sounded through his pedals.



As I was recording he was manipulating the pedal and getting some crazy sounds out of it. It was super fun. We were super inspired by some of the vocal processing on Yebba’s track ‘Louie Bag’

For recording engineers, the human voice remains a tricky element to capture. What are some of the favourite recordings of your own voice so far and what makes voices sound great on record and in a live setting?

I had loads of fun recording “Leo.” Lewis Moody (producer of “Leo”) was an engineer and he just got everything feeling really good.



On verse 2 he was like ‘why don’t you really improvise this take?’ Did that, and then he asked me to triple track it haha. That was fun - finally I’d met someone who loves layering vocals as much as me.

Great on record for me is the artist being comfortable, great in a live setting is the artist being able to really hear themselves so they can get comfy as quick as possible - sound can affect so much about a vocal performance.